This document is aimed to provide basic understanding of the Japanese
syllabary.

The Japanese syllabary basically about fifty different sounds in it,
all a combination of consonants and vowels. However, in writing these
characters, we use two separate character sets: hiragana and
katakana.

We use hiragana when we refer to an word that has its origins in
Japanese. However, we use katakana when the word is a "borrowed" word
or a name from another language. So, for example, if we were to use
the word "computer" (or, "konpyu-ta" in Japanese), we would use
katakana; however, we can use its antiquated Japanese equivalent
"keisanki" and use hiragana for its representation.

The Japanese syllabary is based on five vowel sounds:

Hiragana

Katakana

Sound

Description

a

(as in the initial vowel sound for "aye")

i

(as in "key," only a bit shorter)

u

(as in "food," only a bit shorter)

e

(as in "met")

o

(as in "dough," only a bit shorter)

With these five vowel sounds, Japanese puts one of about fifteen consonant
sounds before each consonants The basic consonants are:

Beginning Consonant

Sound Description

Beginning Consonant

Sound Description

k

as in cat

m

as in mom

s

as in sun

y

as in yes

t

as in ten

r/l

as in light

n

as in no

w

as in wow

h

as in hi

Note that the "r/l" consonant sound in Japanese is a lot more like the
clear "l" sound (as in "light") rather than the muddled "l" (as in
"dull") or an r sound (as in "right"). That's one of the reasons why
some Japanese people have problems speaking the "r" sound; it's just
not available in the language.

There's also the "n" sound which takes no vowel sounds with it.

So, taking all of this together, you get:

Hiragana Table

Katakana Table

Alert readers will notice the blank gaps for "yi," "ye," "wi," "wu,"
and "we." These sounds are not used in modern Japanese. (Probably
since they're so hard to pronounce, and they're hard to distringuish
amongst each other.)

These aren't all of the consonants, either. Some of the above sounds
become voiced and change. These are called the "nigori" sounds:

Sound Change

Description

k becomes g

(as in "green")

s becomes z

(as in "zero")

t becomes d

(as in "dog")

h becomes b

(as in "boy")

When written, you would add two little tick marks above and to the
right of the character. This adds the following sounds:

Hiragana Nigori

Katakana Nigori

Also, there is one last column of characters for the "p" sounds:

Sound

Description

h becomes p

as in pop

These characters get a tiny little circle above and to the right of
the character and are called "maru" (which means "circle" in Japanese)
sounds:

Hiragana Maru

Katakana Maru

Usually, a Japanese dictionary is laid out in order of the consonants
(regardless of the nigori or maru) then the vowels associated with
them. So, dictionaries starts out with a, i, u, e, o, then goes
through ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, sa, shi, su, se, so, and so forth.

One way to learn the consonants is to learn the consonant sequence.
Most people use "a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa" to learn them. I
did!

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